Let me begin by saying it's been a long time since I went through Basic,Infantry, Airborne or any of the other schools Uncle Sugar put me through. Things are bound to have changed . Hopefully someone who is a recent graduate will add their experience to the thread. Following the routine I'll outline will certainly help to prepare you. Will it be enough? The one word answer is...no. Why?
When you begin Basic Training, training to become a soldier will become your sole purpose in life.You will spend all day(and parts of the night)focused on it. You cant simulate the mental aspect while you are here "on the block".When you are there,you are there 24-7. You cant turn it off.
Some make the adjustment easily. Some are weak minded individuals and fail to grasp the rules of the game and how to play. For me Basic Training sucked. I counted the days waiting for it to be over. I did alright. I tried to stay under the radar and was strictly an average "Trainee". In Infantry School something clicked.I not only adjusted to the environment,I thrived in it. Airborne school was probably four of the most rewarding/fun weeks of my life.
So anyway....I'll give you a routine to start getting the body ready. However,hands down the most important part you need to prepare is your mind. What your body can accomplish if your mind refuses to quit will surprize many people. I get a chuckle when I read or hear of people " training to failure". Let me tell you something..if you ever wake up on the ground disoriented,to find that you have lost control of your bladder and bowels,unable to stand or even speak a complete sentence....THEN you have trained to failure.
I'll begin the routine in the next post.

When I think of Basic, AIT, and jump school I think of a lot of wasted time and material taught by DI's that had no experience in a combat arms unit. I would like to see AIT taught by Rangers, Special Forces, and grunts, who have spent time in a line unit. AIT allows too much sleep, food, and too little training time in the fine art of infantry skills. Too much time spent on spit and polish and not enough time humping a ruck.
Good civilian jump schools are light years ahead of the military. They can teach you more in 4 days than it takes Ft. Benning to teach in 4 weeks. Too much PT time. If you want to get guys in shape have them do it while performing tasks they will be doing as soldiers instead. Same thing with shooting skills. I have been to civilian schools where I learned more in 2 days than I did in 13 weeks of Uncle sam's summer camp.

One thing you almost have to go to Uncle Sam for is the training in tactics and strategies, with things like small unit tactics. I've noticed there are a few civilian places you can go and get some training like that, but for the most part the military is the only place to get that, and even that only comes after you've been in for a few years. Since I was interested in survival I took advantage of the opportunity to study that stuff while I was in.

In 1968 Airborne Training was either 3 or 4 weeks depending on when you landed at Ft. Benning. For some guys, they got there on Thursday or Friday and 3 weeks of training began on the very next Monday. For others they had to spend an extra week there waiting for all the other people to arrive.

Man! There is nothing like Airborne. We made hundreds and hundreds of 32 foot tower exits. At least 1, sometimes 2, 250 feet tower drops. Then we made 5 parachute drops at Fryar or Fryer D.Z. The last jump of the 5 was an equipment drop. They were in a real hurry to get us all through the school because of the fighting in Viet Nam.

I ended up doing 19 months with the 173D in Viet Nam. I never would have figured on it, but being airborne was the best thing I ever did in my entire life.

But the really nice thing about being a paratrooper is that you have almost no fear left in you any more. It's sort of like learning that you can control your fear to the point that nothing scares you any more. Once I earned my silver wings, I actually felt more secure in me and my abilities to do ANYTHING that I wanted to do. I also developed a more serene sense of myself too. To me, things seemed to get easier to do. Oh, well, that's just my take on becoming a paratrooper.